A little over two decades ago, the elites of Europe met in Maastricht, the Netherlands, to realize a long-held dream. It was to create a common currency that could be used throughout Europe, and possibly, the world.

Earlier this month, news emerged that the US government had suffered its worst cyberattack ever. On June 4, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revealed that hackers had penetrated its networks, possibly for many months.

Leave it to bureaucrats to decide that while some competition is good, too much is bad. In a nutshell, that’s what the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) ongoing campaign against lower taxes is all about.

Back in 1970, Congress enacted a law that became known as the Bank Secrecy Act, or BSA. But like the PATRIOT Act, the USA Freedom Act, and many other opaquely named laws Congress enacts, the BSA had nothing to do with encouraging bank secrecy.

Talk about a comeuppance. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, who helped force through Congress stricter laws against anonymous cash transactions, now faces financial ruin – and an extended jail sentence – thanks to the very same laws.

Recently, I received a message from a client in Mexico. After years of suffering the indignities that US citizens living abroad experience, courtesy of Congress and the IRS, he’s now considering expatriation – giving up his US citizenship and passport.

I got a good laugh earlier this month when a federal appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency (NSA) could no longer collect the phone records of all US persons – and then store them in a massive database.

Almost everyone can benefit by having a second citizenship and passport. The biggest advantage is that it gives you a way to travel internationally if you lose your primary passport or if your government seizes it.

One of the most important services that I think I provide our consulting clients is to say “no” to some of their harebrained ideas. Over the last year or so, the scheme that I’ve said “no” to more than anything else involves Puerto Rico.

I just got back to the US from 10 days in Nevis (the smaller island in the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis). The purpose of my visit was to put together the infrastructure to service clients through Fortress Trust Ltd.

With the US dollar hitting multiyear highs against other global currencies almost daily, Americans are in a sweet spot for making international investments. Your US dollars will buy a lot more rubles, yen, and Canadian dollars than they would a year, or even a month, ago.

US citizens who expatriate – those who give up their citizenship and passport – don’t get a lot of respect.Take Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, for instance. When the Brazilian-born Saverin gave up US citizenship in 2011, it led to a political witch-hunt.

It’s bad enough to have the IRS or another government agency after you. But when Uncle Sam – or even a state or local government – hires a collection agency to chase after you, things can go downhill fast.

I’ve written frequently about FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This one-sided law forces other countries to enforce US tax laws. If they fail to do so, they’re effectively locked out of US markets and the US dollar – the world’s reserve currency (at least for now).

One of the departing initiatives taken by retiring US Attorney General Eric Holder was to impose limits on a legal process called “adoption.” This is not the kind of adoption in which you add a child to your family.

One of the highlights of my life was the nearly three years that I spent in Vienna, Austria. I was there to attend an LL.M. course in international tax law at the Wirtschaftsuniversität, the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

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